GOT: Season 3 begins for world's most pirated show
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:20 pmhttp://communities.washingtontimes.com/ ... show-2012/
While Nielsen ratings still rule supreme, there are an increasing number of ways to measure TV show popularity. The amount of delayed viewing by DVR is starting to be factored in. Social media buzz is one of the newer measures of popularity.
Then there’s how many people steal your programming.
File sharing news site Torrent Freak has release its list of the Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows of 2012, as measured by the number of people using the popular BitTorrent filesharing protocol to download large sized files, the kind of files that would be necessary to get your hands on popular entertainment including TV shows.
BitTorrent isn’t illegal in and of itself; what’s done with it can often be illegal. And make no mistake, filesharing is illegal when someone is engaging in piracy of programs owned by someone else, whether it’s a broadcast, cable, premium cable or PPV service. That’s called stealing, boys and girls.
Nevertheless, it’s intriguing to see what programs are appealing enough that viewers want to steal them. Eighty percent of pirating occurs outside of the United States, where certain popular shows aren’t available after they air in the U.S. Thanks to social networking, the overseas audience appetite is whetted and they just can’t wait for their favorite shows.
The list is evenly split between broadcast TV and cable TV. According to Torrent Freak, HBO’s series “Game of Thrones” tops the list of most-pirated shows with 4,280,000 downloads of a single episode. The final episode of Season 2 had 4.2 million viewers in comparison.
The Top 10:
Game of Thrones: 4.28 million downloads
Dexter: 3.85 million downloads
The Big Bang Theory: 3.2 million downloads
How I Met Your Mother: 2.96 million downloads
Breaking Bad: 2.58 million downloads
The Walking Dead: 2.55 million downloads
Homeland: 2.4 million downloads
House: 2.34 million downloads
Fringe: 2.28 million downloads
Revolution: 2.13 million downloads
What it is about GOT that makes it so appealing to… well, let’s say it… thieves? It’s the combination of airing delays outside the U.S. and HBO’s choice to limit its availability online to full cable subscribers. This is the excuse, anyway.
Pirated editions of “Game of Thrones” are especially popular in Australia. Fans have to wait one week longer than American fans to view the show. But there are also many American fans who are downloading the show without paying HBO’s subscription fees.
A survey earlier this year found that people who obtain movies and TV shows from the Internet through unauthorized and often illegal channels would actually prefer not to do if they were given the chance. Although cost is often cited the reason for piracy, there are three far greater priorities driving people to break the law: convenience, choice and availability.
Skill with the technological means to do so also plays a role. The busiest pirates are men and younger viewers. Thirty percent of 15 to 29 year olds pirate entertainment programs, compared to just four percent of 50 to 74 year olds.
I also blame the sense of entitlement by so many people who fall into the Millennial generation. It’s painting a lot of people with a broad brush, but this generation isn’t used to delayed gratification thanks to indulgent parents satisfying their every whim. They want their GOT (or Dexter or Breaking Bad) and they want it NOW.
Going back to the cost issue, it also seems apparent that the older group has more disposable income, and is willing to pay for the privilege of getting their Westeros fix through an HBO subscription.
I’m at a loss to explain why two CBS half-hour comedies make the list at number three and number four. If you’ve got a clue, fill me in.
The third season of Game of Thrones debuts March 31st on HBO. Dragons not included.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 1pbtBX9Kok
The new season of 'Game of Thrones' is a slow burn of dragon fire.
Your favorite characters will be lucky to make it out alive.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/41312 ... ragon-fire
HBO's hit series Game of Thrones likes to take its time. From the very beginning, the series has excelled at the slow burn: methodically pitting one character against another, layering betrayal atop betrayal, and finishing each of its two seasons in shocking fashion. Of course, there's also a healthy mix of blood, sex, and dragon fire along the way. If the premiere episode of the program's third season is any indication, it isn't straying too far from that successful combination — and according to the minds behind the show, some of the most satisfying payoffs yet are in store.
Last night HBO and AllThingsD hosted a screening of the episode, followed by a Q&A with author George R.R. Martin as well as executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The new season covers roughly half of A Storm of Swords, the third novel in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga. Season four would ostensibly cover the second half of the book — though Benioff cautioned that the show hasn't been picked up for next year just yet.
From the very beginning, the episode reeks of foreboding — the sound of clashing swords and dragon cries battle over a black screen, before we plunge into the episode itself. Watching the pieces slowly fall into place is part of the joy of Thrones, so I'll refrain from excessive plot details, but suffice to say that we meet the characters as we remember them — only worse off than ever before. It's visually summed up in the title sequence, as smoke pours from the previously-immaculate clockwork recreation of Winterfell: yes, you've been here before, but things aren't getting better anytime soon.
Covering nearly every major series plot thread in its running time, the episode is an expert course in setting the stage and putting pieces in motion. Haters of King Joffrey — read: everyone — will be happy to see a new dynamic arise between him and his Queen-to-be Margaery, but the episode is nowhere more exciting than when we catch up with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). Having rescued her trio of dragons at the end of last season, she's now hunting for an army that can help her retake the Iron Throne. Her search leads to one of the most visceral and disturbing acts of violence we've seen yet in Thrones — and this is an episode where we run across our first beheaded corpse within the opening 90 seconds.
The push-pull of violence and character work has been a staple of pay-cable dramas since The Sopranos, but Game of Thrones continues to push the envelope. Some criticize it as gratuitous, but I've always found it to be an important part of the show's ability to keep viewers on edge: a constant warning that nothing is sacred in the world of Westeros, and no one is safe.
Despite the violence, there's a noticeable uptick in the number of laughs. The show has always balanced its pitch-black machinations with a healthy dose of gallows humor, but here they're much more pronounced. From Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) sparring verbally with his right-hand man Bronn, to Sansa (Sophie Turner) bemoaning that "the truth is always terrible — or boring," the humor is a welcome addition. A show that trudges as deep into the dark as Thrones needs as many light moments as it can muster.
While Nielsen ratings still rule supreme, there are an increasing number of ways to measure TV show popularity. The amount of delayed viewing by DVR is starting to be factored in. Social media buzz is one of the newer measures of popularity.
Then there’s how many people steal your programming.
File sharing news site Torrent Freak has release its list of the Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows of 2012, as measured by the number of people using the popular BitTorrent filesharing protocol to download large sized files, the kind of files that would be necessary to get your hands on popular entertainment including TV shows.
BitTorrent isn’t illegal in and of itself; what’s done with it can often be illegal. And make no mistake, filesharing is illegal when someone is engaging in piracy of programs owned by someone else, whether it’s a broadcast, cable, premium cable or PPV service. That’s called stealing, boys and girls.
Nevertheless, it’s intriguing to see what programs are appealing enough that viewers want to steal them. Eighty percent of pirating occurs outside of the United States, where certain popular shows aren’t available after they air in the U.S. Thanks to social networking, the overseas audience appetite is whetted and they just can’t wait for their favorite shows.
The list is evenly split between broadcast TV and cable TV. According to Torrent Freak, HBO’s series “Game of Thrones” tops the list of most-pirated shows with 4,280,000 downloads of a single episode. The final episode of Season 2 had 4.2 million viewers in comparison.
The Top 10:
Game of Thrones: 4.28 million downloads
Dexter: 3.85 million downloads
The Big Bang Theory: 3.2 million downloads
How I Met Your Mother: 2.96 million downloads
Breaking Bad: 2.58 million downloads
The Walking Dead: 2.55 million downloads
Homeland: 2.4 million downloads
House: 2.34 million downloads
Fringe: 2.28 million downloads
Revolution: 2.13 million downloads
What it is about GOT that makes it so appealing to… well, let’s say it… thieves? It’s the combination of airing delays outside the U.S. and HBO’s choice to limit its availability online to full cable subscribers. This is the excuse, anyway.
Pirated editions of “Game of Thrones” are especially popular in Australia. Fans have to wait one week longer than American fans to view the show. But there are also many American fans who are downloading the show without paying HBO’s subscription fees.
A survey earlier this year found that people who obtain movies and TV shows from the Internet through unauthorized and often illegal channels would actually prefer not to do if they were given the chance. Although cost is often cited the reason for piracy, there are three far greater priorities driving people to break the law: convenience, choice and availability.
Skill with the technological means to do so also plays a role. The busiest pirates are men and younger viewers. Thirty percent of 15 to 29 year olds pirate entertainment programs, compared to just four percent of 50 to 74 year olds.
I also blame the sense of entitlement by so many people who fall into the Millennial generation. It’s painting a lot of people with a broad brush, but this generation isn’t used to delayed gratification thanks to indulgent parents satisfying their every whim. They want their GOT (or Dexter or Breaking Bad) and they want it NOW.
Going back to the cost issue, it also seems apparent that the older group has more disposable income, and is willing to pay for the privilege of getting their Westeros fix through an HBO subscription.
I’m at a loss to explain why two CBS half-hour comedies make the list at number three and number four. If you’ve got a clue, fill me in.
The third season of Game of Thrones debuts March 31st on HBO. Dragons not included.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 1pbtBX9Kok
The new season of 'Game of Thrones' is a slow burn of dragon fire.
Your favorite characters will be lucky to make it out alive.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/41312 ... ragon-fire
HBO's hit series Game of Thrones likes to take its time. From the very beginning, the series has excelled at the slow burn: methodically pitting one character against another, layering betrayal atop betrayal, and finishing each of its two seasons in shocking fashion. Of course, there's also a healthy mix of blood, sex, and dragon fire along the way. If the premiere episode of the program's third season is any indication, it isn't straying too far from that successful combination — and according to the minds behind the show, some of the most satisfying payoffs yet are in store.
Last night HBO and AllThingsD hosted a screening of the episode, followed by a Q&A with author George R.R. Martin as well as executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The new season covers roughly half of A Storm of Swords, the third novel in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga. Season four would ostensibly cover the second half of the book — though Benioff cautioned that the show hasn't been picked up for next year just yet.
From the very beginning, the episode reeks of foreboding — the sound of clashing swords and dragon cries battle over a black screen, before we plunge into the episode itself. Watching the pieces slowly fall into place is part of the joy of Thrones, so I'll refrain from excessive plot details, but suffice to say that we meet the characters as we remember them — only worse off than ever before. It's visually summed up in the title sequence, as smoke pours from the previously-immaculate clockwork recreation of Winterfell: yes, you've been here before, but things aren't getting better anytime soon.
Covering nearly every major series plot thread in its running time, the episode is an expert course in setting the stage and putting pieces in motion. Haters of King Joffrey — read: everyone — will be happy to see a new dynamic arise between him and his Queen-to-be Margaery, but the episode is nowhere more exciting than when we catch up with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). Having rescued her trio of dragons at the end of last season, she's now hunting for an army that can help her retake the Iron Throne. Her search leads to one of the most visceral and disturbing acts of violence we've seen yet in Thrones — and this is an episode where we run across our first beheaded corpse within the opening 90 seconds.
The push-pull of violence and character work has been a staple of pay-cable dramas since The Sopranos, but Game of Thrones continues to push the envelope. Some criticize it as gratuitous, but I've always found it to be an important part of the show's ability to keep viewers on edge: a constant warning that nothing is sacred in the world of Westeros, and no one is safe.
Despite the violence, there's a noticeable uptick in the number of laughs. The show has always balanced its pitch-black machinations with a healthy dose of gallows humor, but here they're much more pronounced. From Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) sparring verbally with his right-hand man Bronn, to Sansa (Sophie Turner) bemoaning that "the truth is always terrible — or boring," the humor is a welcome addition. A show that trudges as deep into the dark as Thrones needs as many light moments as it can muster.
